I Can't Say Yes
by Serene Cullen
Summary: Meredith feels threatened by Addison sticking around in the hospital for longer than she needs to. Then she checks for Derek's pager for him and ends up finding a ring.


I Can't Say Yes

Derek smiled and bit his lip as he fiddled with the ring box in his pocket. He walked into the room of his pregnant brain patient. "Did you ask her?" the lady asked shifting in her bed.

"No, I almost did but I got paged and I had to clean up and come in."

"What?" she asked moving up in her bed to sit up.

"Ya I got paged from my ex-wife and I needed to come in and save her brother."

"Well I'm sure that your future fiancé really appreciated that one," she said giving him a 'look'. What was it about women and their almighty 'looks'.

"Well its not like I was down on one knee and then the pager went off. I set up a bunch of flowers and a stuffed bear. There were candles and my best friend came over and helped me. But I got the page and I cleaned it up. She didn't even know," Derek said opening the box and looking at the ring again.

"She would have said yes," the patient said. Addison walked into the room after receiving her page from Dr. Karev.

"I came as fast as I could Derek," she said interrupting the conversation.

"You should just not keep that woman here any longer than you need to. It'll scare her away, she'll say no." The patient shook her head and looked at him "you have a beautiful ring, and a beautiful girl. But if you keep that ex of your around it'll affect her like cancer. And she will say no."

Derek took an uneasy glance at Addison. She looked down and her cheeks flushed a little in embarrassment. "I'm sorry I didn't mean for her to hear all of the song and the stories and everything."

"This? This is your ex wife?" the patient looked up. Derek sighed and the dragged on. He got marriage advice and divorce advice from a patient he barely knew.

He went home and climbed into bed cursing as he realized he left his pager in his doctor's coat. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed the number that his brain didn't even need to function for. "Meredith could you go into the attending's locker room and grab my pager from my coat for me?"

"Ya sure, I'll be home soon," she said as he closed his phone. She sighed and walked to his locker and took out his coat. She ran her hands down it for a second attempting to find it that way. When her hands moved over the front coat pocket she felt a bulge and reached in the pocket and was confused when she saw a box instead of a pager. She opened it and saw a diamond ring. She swallowed hard and checked both side pockets and found his pager. She raced home and was surprised to find Addison's car sitting in _her_ driveway.

She walked up to the window and saw Addison and Derek sitting on the couch laughing. Her legs were drawn up on the couch and she was leaned towards Derek her shirt dropping lower than Meredith would have preferred. Meredith smiled slightly and walked into her house. Her home, seeing a woman she hated snuggled up next to her boyfriend who hadn't talked to her normally for awhile.

"Here," Meredith said. She tossed him his pager and then his ring box. She looked at Addison and then left the room.

"Wait isn't that?" Addison said looking at Derek's hand.

"It is indeed," he opened the box again.

"She found the ring? What are you going to do?" she asked.

"Act like she didn't," Derek said pocketing the ring.

Meredith sat up in their bedroom and slowly peeled off her hospital scrubs. She sat down on the bed in only her bra and underwear trying to decide what to do. "Meredith," Derek said walking in.

"Don't," she warned. "Just close the door walk in, and sleep. And do not pull that box out ok?"

"Meredith I want to-"

"Derek don't do it because I found it, don't do it because you feel like it's ruined. And don't do it while your ex sits down their in my living room because since she came and your proposal song was sung to me and ingrained into the little niches of my head. Don't ask because right now at this moment in time I'm going to say no." She snuck under the covers and turned away from him in the bed.

Derek sighed "alright, alright I'll just pretend you didn't see it." She nodded and he climbed into bed next to her and held her close.

#

**AN: This is my first shot at a Merrek oneshot so I hope you like it! Please reveiw**


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